New Black Panthers patrol polling location in 2008 carrying a nightstick and blocking a doorway

The head of the controversial New Black Panther Party, Malik Zulu Shabazz, wasn’t kidding when he told WND’s Aaron Klein in September that his group would again deploy outside voting booths today – to prevent “intimidation against our people,” he said – and sure enough, the New Black Panthers are out today in force.

Including Jerry Jackson.

Jackson, some may recall, was one of the two New Black Panther Party members charged in what is widely considered the most egregious case of voter intimidation in modern times, when he and “Minister King Samir Shabazz” (aka Maurice Heath), the party’s Philadelphia leader, were videotaped on Election Day 2008 wearing paramilitary uniforms, carrying a nightstick and blocking a doorway to a polling location to intimidate voters.

As WND reported, Samir Shabazz was also noteworthy for having said on video: “You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!”

In a surprise decision that caused career DOJ attorneys to quit, the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder’s leadership decided against prosecuting the case, thus inviting today’s encore appearances.

New Black Panther Jerry Jackson at Philadelphia polling site (Photo: Victor Fiorillo for The Philly Post)

Jackson, was reported by Fox News as being seen this morning “outside a North Philadelphia voting site wearing the group’s trademark black beret, combat-style uniform and heavy boots. Fox News confirmed he is a designated poll watcher.”

Also in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, a judge issued an order earlier today that Republican election officials across Philadelphia who had been ejected or refused entry by on-site Democratic voting chief judges had to be reinstated.

According to one GOP official, “just under 70″ Republican election officials had been prevented from entering the Philly polling sites this morning by Democrats. One had reportedly been “shoved out of the polling place.”

“For this many inspectors to be ejected from polling places is rare, even for Philadelphia,” the official told FoxNews.com.

Mural of Obama at Philadelphia polling site before and after it was partially covered following a judge's orders

The same report noted that a giant mural of President Obama adorned the wall inside a Philadelphia polling place. And although a judge subsequently ordered the Obama mural be covered up “in its entirety,” poll workers instead “slapped up a few pieces of paper that only partially covered his image,” Fox reported, “while leaving the Obama campaign logo and a quote from the current president in full view for voters.”

The judge’s order came in response to complaints from GOP officials that the mural – which featured the words “Hope” and “Change” – might influence voters at the polling site, a school in Ward 35.

“It is an absolute disgrace,” said Shannon Royer, deputy secretary for external affairs and elections in Pennsylvania, according to the Fox report. “Election materials and electioneering inside the polling place are prohibited by state law. This can be interpreted as trying to influence voters inside the polling place.”

According to Pennsylvania election law, “no person within a polling place may electioneer or solicit votes for any political party, political body, or candidate, nor may any unauthorized written or printed materials be posted within the polling place.”

Likewise, a poster featuring President Obama – with the message “Change the Atmosphere” – was reported to be hanging on a wall inside a polling station at the Jack L. McLean Community Center in Tallahassee, Fla., as depicted in this photo reportedly taken by a voter there.

“A woman attempting to vote in West Boca Raton this morning was initially prohibited from entering the polling place because she was wearing a tee shirt with the letters MIT,” reported BocaNewsNow.com. “The woman was ultimately allowed to vote,” the local report reads.
(In related news, a voter in a monkey suit was apparently allowed to vote here.)

“This is a final, desperate attempt to deny citizens their right to observe elections,” said True The Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht, warning her group would be taking legal action. “The Ohio Democratic Party has projected paranoia on an international scale by promoting the idea that concerned citizens would dare observe elections to ensure a fair process. If the Ohio Democratic Party thinks True the Vote-trained poll watchers are legion, wait until it meets our lawyers.”

Meanwhile, author and vote-fraud expert John Fund has big-time concerns about voter fraud today. In an interview with WND, Fund – author of “Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” – cited the nonpartisan Pew Research Center’s disturbing findings that 1 out of 8 voter registrations are either invalid or contain major errors, 4 million voters are registered in more than one state, and there are 2 million dead people on America’s voting rolls.

“We have a lot of underbrush,” Fund told WND. “And when you have underbrush you’re going to have fires, and I fear we’re going to have a fraud fire.”

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Indeed, in North Carolina, PJ Media reports that one “Andrew Gail Holmes voted early in Sampson County, North Carolina, and then appeared at their precinct today to vote again, according to the staff director of the Sampson County Board of Elections, Donna Mashburn.”

“We have a gentleman who had early voted,” Mashburn said, “and went to his precinct to vote. We are aware of it.”

The fires may have started, but help appears to be on the way.

Ret. Navy Seal Ben Brink says he and a legion of retired special ops men are monitoring polling places today, especially those with reported cases of voter intimidation. As Phillymag.com reports, you might want to call them “Seal Team November 6”:

Special operations veterans, including former Navy Seals, Delta Force will be called back into action on Election Day to make certain there’s no voter intimidation at the polls.

Philadelphia is a prime target.

Former Navy Captain Benjamin Brink is leading the operation. “The nation saw the video of members of the Black Panthers in Philadelphia intimidating people trying to vote in 2008,” Brink told me when I interviewed him during my radio show on IQ 106.9. “We are going to try and make certain that nothing like that happens this year.”

Brink claims to have over a hundred former Army Rangers, Navy Seal, Delta Force, Green Berets and others who have volunteered for duty. The idea of Navy Seals and Black Panthers getting into it at a Philly polling site gives a whole new incentive for casting a ballot. “Our guys aren’t easily intimidated,” adds Brink.

In an update, Brink told The Blaze, “We have teams in about six cities. They’re not big teams, but special forces guys don’t need to be big teams.” He added that the number of New Black Panthers in Cleveland has grown to 11, that they have settled in a cafe across from the election commission and are not doing anything – but “appear to be waiting for something.”